Blog Post Archive

On this day in 1940 the United States House of Representatives passed a bill imposing fines on county or state officials who negligently failed to protect persons in their custody from seizure by a mob who injured or killed those persons – or, as it was better known, an anti-lynching bill.1 “Why is President Roosevelt […]

It’s time to shut down The Edge of the American West. It’s been a long run, and I’ve enjoyed it, but blogging has become less compelling over the last year or so. I want to stop before writing for Edge actively becomes a chore. The blog has already had a number of lives, and different configurations, but I suspect that this is the last one. Show More Summary

The 100th anniversary of World War I is upon us, and for the next four years, there will be a flood of remembrances, celebrations, and lamentations. There will be books, web sites, and TV shows. Yours truly (self-aggrandizement warning!) is currently appearing on the History Channel in one of those shows. Show More Summary

Jamelle Boule calls out the deceptiveness of conservatives noting that the Democrats have historically been the party of Jim Crow: The problem with Fund’s argument is that he takes these facts, divorces them from historical context,Show More Summary

The Senate is paralyzed, Paul Kane of the Washington Post points out. Why? Personalities: Senators say that they increasingly feel like pawns caught between Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose deep personal and political antagonisms have almost immobilized the Senate. Show More Summary

I’d like to revise and extend my previous post, because handing over serious surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to a bunch of incompetent amateurs is not the work of a smart man. Bringing down a civilian airliner (and adding nearly 300 more deaths to the ongoing tragedy in the Ukraine) is such a monumentally stupid thing to do that it boggles the mind. Show More Summary

Old Blood and Iron Himself Wait, you mean that Putin is now backing off Ukraine: Now that he’s sown chaos in Ukraine—but uneager to participate in someone else’s civil war—President Vladimir Putin has thrown the rebels under the bus....Show More Summary

President Obama is — according to a recent survey — the worst American President since World War II: He narrowly beats out his predecessor, George W. Bush, 33% – 28%. I’m sure that each one of the 1446 respondents worked their way carefully through each postwar President, mentally cataloguing their performance. Show More Summary

Is back, and Politico thinks that he’s worth quoting on Iraq: “This is the education of Barack Obama, but it’s coming at a very high cost to the Syrian people to the Iraqi people [and] to the American national interest,” said Doug Feith, a top Pentagon official during the George W. Show More Summary

Justin Wolfers gives David Brat a pass on a confession of ignorance: When an MSNBC interviewer asked David Brat, the economics professor at Randolph-Macon College who toppled Eric Cantor in a primary challenge Tuesday, whether he opposed...Show More Summary

Chillicothe, Ohio unveiled a memorial to the Korean War this last Memorial Day. Unfortunately, the creators do not seem to have had the best historical sense in the world: The mistakes kind of confirm Korea’s status as “The Forgotten War,” sadly enough. List of the problems.

Michael Beschloss, criticizing the penchant for commemorating the D-Day anniversary, and talking about Eisenhower avoided the 1954 anniversary, because: Self-celebration was mostly alien to the men and women of World War II’s “greatest generation,” starting with the supreme commander. Show More Summary

Imperial powers gain much of their strength from their global networks. The British – by owning the oceans in the 19th century – controlled how much of the world’s commerce moved. In that same century, much of the world’s information moved over British telegraph networks. Show More Summary

In no particular order: Job reports. In the latest form of blog posts/newspaper articles, we have the “The jobs report is good/bad on the surface, but bad/good underneath” genre. We got a bumper crop of it after today’s release. Yes,...Show More Summary

Who’s a nice naval base, then? Shorter John Cassidy: Putin may have a set of motivations that are rational by his lights, but I think he’s crazy: Putin is a Russian nationalist[] through and through, and, historically, an important part of Russian nationalism has been expansionism. Show More Summary

The Department of the Navy is advertising a summer internship as a “Student Trainee Laborer.” It is paid, admittedly, but doesn’t strike me as a particularly educational experience: This position is that of a Student Trainee (Laborer) assigned to perform a combination of tasks requiring little or no special skill, experience or training. Show More Summary

World War II will not be entirely over for a long while: Tens of thousands of city residents and U.S. Army soldiers here will evacuate their homes, offices and barracks Thursday as military explosives experts, seasoned by duty in Afghanistan,...Show More Summary